​Former Gitmo inmates urge French judge to probe ‘systematic torture’

Two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners have asked a French judge to open a probe into claims of torture at the US prison. The allegations pertain to a retired commander of the facility accused of “war crimes and acts of torture inflicted on detainees.”

French citizens Nizar Sassi and Mourad Benchallali, who were held
in Guantanamo for late 2001 to 2004, have urged a French judge to
issue a subpoena against former base commander Geoffrey Miller
for torture.

The two men submitted an expert report along with Khaled Ben
Mustapha, another former Guantanamo inmate to the Criminal Court
in Paris. The document is backed by rights groups The Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and details “an
authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill-treatment on
persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without
the basic rights of any detainee.”

Among the acts of torture exacted on the former detainees, the
report describes sleep deprivation, extended isolation and
exposure to extreme temperatures. Before Miller assumed his role
as commander of the base in 2002 the Bush Administration
authorized the use of interrogation techniques that “did not
conform to the Geneva Conventions and went beyond those approved
in the U.S. Army Field Manual.”

Miller implemented these interrogation techniques at the base and
continued to use them even after then-secretary of defense Donald
Rumsfeld withdrew permission in January 2003. According to the
former detainees’ lawyers, these so-called “softening
up” techniques “continued to be used in certain
cases.”

“These acts constitute torture and violate, at a minimum, the
Geneva Conventions prohibition on coercive interrogations,”
writes the report.

The investigative magistrate Sophie Clement issued a request in
2012 to the US government for access to the relevant documents in
the case of Sassi, Benchellali and Ben Mustapha. The request was
never answered by the US government.

"That high-level US officials alleged to bear responsible for
torture continue to enjoy impunity domestically is a stain on the
US system of justice," said Katherine Gallagher, senior
staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and
vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.

William Bourdon, one of the lawyers representing the detainees
said the US should refrain from blocking a testimony from
Geoffrey Miller and stressed the fact the Guantanamo Bay remains
open 12 years after it began accepting prisoners, despite
President Obama’s attempts to close it.

"Considering the close relationship that exists between
France and the United States, the US should not block Geoffrey
Miller's testimony; he has a lot to say," Bourdon said.

Reports of torture at the prison base were first brought to the
international community’s attention when the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) investigated Guantanamo. They
carried out over 500 interviews and met with Miller and his
staff. Following the visit, the ICRC voiced its concern over the
lack of a legal system for the inmates and the excessive use of
isolation and steel cages. The organization concluded the
interrogators had “too much control over the basic needs of
detainees.”